Someone on a weblog I frequent said that she did find Commander the most enjoyable of the formats she'd played, but still had some misgivings about the overly random nature of land availability. So I've been wondering, is there a way to fix that, without running into power excess? I think I might have hit on a possible answer.

Namely, the command zone isn't just for commanders. It also gets to play host to a few lands.

Specifically, I'm thinking you can have in your command zone three basic lands of your choice, or two basic lands of your choice and Command Tower. And yes, these count towards the 100. You can play a command zone land in just the same way you'd play a land from your hand. If lands originating from the command zone get exiled/destroyed/tucked/etc., they can be returned to the command zone instead. The trick is making sure that CZ lands don't get confused with other basic lands. I doubt anyone would be dim enough to blow up a CZ land unless they were desperate to lock out a bit of your mana for just one turn, but...

So I play Zo-Zu the Punisher or some other general that doesn't need more than 3 lands and 96 other cards? That would be a lot of gas.

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Shabbaman wrote:

The usual answer is "the social contract", but I guess that is not what you are looking for. Try house rules.

With perfect mana, reasonable removal, disruption, and card advantage, we're back to pitchforks and torches. And it's about to get worse for those who do not enjoy the game as Richard Garfield intended, playing as few win conditions as possible and prompting concession after all hopes (and spells) are lost. - Shaheen Soorani

So I play Zo-Zu the Punisher or some other general that doesn't need more than 3 lands and 96 other cards? That would be a lot of gas.

I thought of Flash Hulk and 4c stax since those are my current jim jams. But like the 'social contract' this is something you would only do with friends and similarly powered decks. It doesn't seem to port very well to random groups because i would absolutely make a deck with very few lands if i can just start with 3 in my extra hand. But doing so makes your deck just suck when you play 10 lands without the rule.

If lands originating from the command zone get exiled/destroyed/tucked/etc., they can be returned to the command zone instead.

What are you actually trying to fix? Quote 1 suggests variance is the problem (which you can mitigate with more lands / mana rocks).Quote 2 suggests land destruction is the problem, and seriously, most lands that do get destroyed in a fair game are fair game (e.g. Gaia's Cradle)

I really like this idea. I think it's fair (in the sense that it benefits all players, and scales between the different styles of play), and I think it adds to the fun (no one wants to sit and watch their friends play for 45 minutes 'cause they're short a land).

If I were gonna suggest this to my groups, I'd probably keep it to 1 basic... 3 feels like it makes the game too easy, and the Command Tower is too good for multicolor decks.

I like the idea, a friend told me about this once at our local game shop. I thought was a good way to fight off mana issues but I think keeping it to two basic lands and starting with 5 hard hand is much more fair and it should be an option, if you want the mana then you have to start with a 5 card hand.